President Obama touts Obamacare in downtown San Jose

People gather in front of the Fairmont Hotel, where President Obama is scheduled to deliver a statement about the benefits of the Affordable Care Act, in downtown San Jose on June 7, 2013. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)

SAN JOSE -- California's ahead-of-the-curve health insurance exchange and its aggressive outreach to uninsured Latino residents make the state a model for the nation -- and proof that Obamacare can work, President Barack Obama said Friday.

Speaking to reporters at San Jose's Fairmont Hotel, Obama praised a partnership between Covered California, the state's new health-insurance marketplace; the California Endowment, a private, statewide health foundation; and Spanish-language media outlets Univision, Telemundo and impreMedia, for educating Latinos about Obamacare and urging them to buy health insurance starting this fall.

President Barack Obama delivers a statement on the Affordable Care Act at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, Calif. on Friday, June 7, 2013. Behind him is Monica Lozano, CEO of ImpreMedia and Robert Ross, of the California Endowment. (Gary Reyes/ Bay Area News Group)
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Gary Reyes
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Latinos make up 38 percent of California's population but more than 61 percent of the state's uninsured. The partnership will use print, television, radio and the Internet -- especially social media -- to try reaching every corner of the Latino community.

Obama said that beginning in October, the health-care law will help the uninsured buy quality, affordable health care as many states launch online health insurance marketplaces where consumers shop for coverage that best suits them.

And despite opponents' "gloom and doom predictions," states that have established the exchanges "are seeing some good news," he said. "Competition and choice are pushing down costs in the individual market just like the law was designed to do."

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"Now, that's not to say that everything is going to go perfectly right away," Obama said. "But no matter what, every single consumer will be covered by the new benefits and protections under this law permanently."

Shortly after the president spoke, a group of political and health leaders toured Santa Clara Valley Medical Center and warned that as the health system moves to implement the law, budget cuts proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown could shred safety-net services.

Brown has said that as more people become insured, public hospitals will not need as much money for indigent care. He proposes to take an estimated $2.5 billion from county health programs over three years.

Santa Clara County could lose up to $60 million annually and expects to have 150,000 residents remain uninsured, said Rene Santiago, director of the Santa Clara Health and Hospital System.

State Sen. Jim Beall, D-San Jose, said he has joined other senators in opposing the cut until the health reform law effects are known.

"There's too many variables in the Affordable Care Act," Beall said. "The last thing you want to do is endanger the safety net. This has been a model system. We don't need the state throwing a hand grenade in the middle of this."